Walmor, Inc. v. Breger

237 A.D. 614, 262 N.Y.S. 409, 1933 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10680
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedFebruary 17, 1933
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 237 A.D. 614 (Walmor, Inc. v. Breger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Walmor, Inc. v. Breger, 237 A.D. 614, 262 N.Y.S. 409, 1933 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10680 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1933).

Opinion

Merrell, J.

This action is brought by plaintiff, as assignee and successor in interest of the Community State Bank, to recover an alleged balance claimed to be due on a promissory note in writing made and delivered by defendant to the said Community State Bank on May 14, 1929. By the terms of said promissory note the defendant promised to pay to the order of the Community State Bank on demand the sum of $8,887.50. Plaintiff claims to be the assignee of said note under several mergers and mesne assignments, but makes no claim to be a holder of said promissory note in due course. The promissory note on which plaintiff sues is not set forth in hcec verba, the plaintiff contenting itself with alleging the legal effect thereof. Plaintiff seeks to recover the unpaid balance of said note, amounting to $3,377.36, besides interest. The answer, aside from denials, sets up three separate and distinct defenses and a counterclaim upon which the defendant demands judgment [616]*616against plaintiff for $1,000. These various defenses and the counterclaim have been stricken out by the order appealed from as insufficient in law.

In the first partial defense contained in the answer of the defendant, the defendant alleges that on or about May 14, 1929, the defendant, through the said Community State Bank, purchased fifty shares of the common stock of the du Pont de Nemours Company. The note in suit was originally given in payment for the stock thus purchased by defendant through said Community State Bank. It is alleged in the said first defense that prior to the purchase of said stock the defendant and Community State Bank entered into an agreement wherein and whereby the said bank agreed to and did loan to defendant the sum of $8,887.50 which was the amount of the purchase price of said stock, and which sum was, to the knowledge of the Community State Bank, used by it for and on behalf of the defendant to pay the purchase price of said fifty shares of stock, and that by said agreement the said Community State Bank further agreed to forthwith place with a member of the New York Stock Exchange a stop-loss order to sell said stock whenever the same reached twenty dollars a share below the purchase price, and further agreed to apply the proceeds of the sale of such stock toward the repayment to itself of the moneys which might then be due on said loan, the defendant agreeing to pay any deficiency which might arise, and therein and thereby the Community State Bank further agreed to sell said stock at any time on demand or order of defendant. It is further alleged that the said Community State Bank could readily have sold the said fifty shares of stock at a price twenty dollars per share below the purchase price of said stock, as agreed upon, and that in violation of the terms and conditions of said agreement it failed, neglected and refused so to do. It is further alleged that the price or value of said stock on the New York Stock Exchange did fall twenty dollars per share below the purchase price, at which time, under the aforesaid agreement and stop-loss order, the said stock was to be sold. Defendant alleges that had the Community State Bank carried out its agreement and sold said stock, it could have sold said stock and received from the proceeds of such sale sufficient money to repay itself, less the sum of $1,000. The order of the court at Special Term striking out the first defense contained in the answer of defendant, as indicated in the memorandum opinion contained in the order / appealed from, seems to have been based upon the assumption that there was no express agreement obligating the Community State Bank, as pledgee, to sell the collateral in question. In our opinion, the court was in error in assuming that there was no special agree[617]*617ment alleged. As a matter of fact, the fifth paragraph of the answer contained in the partial defense clearly sets forth an express agreement under which the stock in question was pledged, in the following language: “Fifth. That prior to the purchase of said stock, this defendant and the Community State Bank entered into an agreement wherein and whereby the Community State Bank agreed to and did loan to this defendant the sum of $8,887.50, which was the amount of the purchase price of said stock, and which said sum was to the knowledge of the Community State Bank, used by it for and on behalf of this defendant to pay the purchase price of such fifty shares of stock referred to in paragraph ' Fourth ’ hereof, and whereby the said Community State Bank further agreed forthwith to place with a member of the New York Stock Exchange a stop loss order to sell said stock whenever the same reached twenty dollars a share below the purchase price, and further agreed to apply the proceeds of the sale of such stock towards the repayment to itself of the moneys which may then be due on said loan, this defendant agreeing to pay any deficiency which may arise, and wherein and whereby the Community State Bank further agreed to sell said stock at any time on demand or order of this defendant.” It appears from the above allegation contained in the answer that the defendant distinctly sets forth a definite and special agreement whereby, in consideration of the deposit of said stock with plaintiff, plaintiff was to sell the same at a certain time. The first defense then goes on to allege a breach of such agreement on the part of the bank. It thus appears that the Special Term was in error in its assumption of the absence of an express agreement to sell and dispose of the collateral at the time mentioned and to apply the proceeds of the sale of such stock toward the repayment to itself of any moneys which might then be due on said loan. We are of the opinion that sufficient facts were set forth in the said first defense to constitute a valid defense, and that the court erred in striking out the same.

" In the second and third separate defenses contained in the answer the defendant alleges an accord and satisfaction of the plaintiff’s claim. In the second separate defense the defendant alleges that prior to the commencement of the present action and prior to the plaintiff acquiring title to the claim upon which suit is brought, and when the Community State Bank was still the owner and holder of the claim alleged in the complaint, the plaintiff’s assignor demanded payment of the note in question, and that the defendant disputed and refused to pay said claim upon the ground that he was not indebted thereon to plaintiff’s assignor by reason of the failure and refusal of the Community State Bank to comply with [618]*618the terms of the agreement theretofore entered into between them and of their failure and refusal to sell the stock given as collateral at the time demanded by defendant and in pursuance of the agreement then existing between defendant and the plaintiff’s assignor, and upon the grounds that the plaintiff’s assignor was then indebted for damages to this defendant in a sum in excess of the amount due from the defendant to plaintiff’s assignor.

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Bluebook (online)
237 A.D. 614, 262 N.Y.S. 409, 1933 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10680, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walmor-inc-v-breger-nyappdiv-1933.